DIY auto-steer for under £1000, farmers unprepared for BPS withdrawal, Agricultural Transition, beef prices firm, sheep dipping, & World-Record Sheep Shearer

Farmers are unprepared for the big drop in income they will suffer as the  Basic Payment Scheme is phased out in England.

The annual BPS payment makes up 36% of farm income – but one in three farmers have done nothing to replace it – despite cuts less than six months away.

The finding comes in a special survey to mark the start of Transition, a major new initiative to help secure a sustainable future for farm businesses.

With money on everyone's mind at the moment, we talk to the Warwickshire farmer who made his own satellite guidance system for less than £1000.

The GPS system uses the AgOpenGPS opensource software.

On the markets, beef prices continue to firm.

And we have two stories involving big numbers and sheep.

We talk to the man who expects to dip more than 500,000 sheep this season with a state-of-the-art mobile plunge dipper.

And we meet the Oxfordshire farmer who has just set a new world record by sheering  872 strong wool lambs in nine hours.

This episode of the Farmers Weekly Podcast is co-hosted  by Farmers Weekly Podcast editor Johann Tasker and Surrey farmer Hugh Broom.